(Update: Today’s hearings have now adjourned, thankfully. Many of us had pulled most of our hair out and lost our voices from screaming at Brown by the end of this fiasco.)
The House Select Committee hearings investigating hurricane Katrina responses are still on and former FEMA Director Michael Brown is behaving extremely badly. Two Dems are taking part: Gene Taylor(D-MS) and William Jefferson D-LA).
If you missed the earlier testimony, catch the rerun on C-SPAN. You will be absolutely shocked.
Listen to the hearings online on C-SPAN radio or watch it when C-SPAN TV resumes their coverage.
I have annointed Christopher Shays(R-CT) as an honourary Dem for the day. He is truly representing the people of America.
Good to know, good to know — I wish I could continue to follow this, but now, as usual, I am depending on you, catnip!!
Oh, and, in response to a comment you made on the other thread — sanity is all relative and yes, I am in trouble at the same time, you keep me sane!
😉
FEMA FAILS AGAIN: East texas Needs Your Help is why all of that chuckling, smiling and laughing is pissing me off so much right now.
Ex-FEMA Director Brown Blames Others
I missed transcribing Shay’s last round of questioning because I was doing the diary but he was really tough on him again. He asked Brown what else he would have done besides trying to hold more press conferences and holding hands with Blanco and Nagin (my words). Brown’s only other addition was to call the military in 24 hrs earlier.
Not sure who’s questioning now…(it’s Steve ? R of Indiana)
uh oh – Brown just said he doesn’t know approx. how many people are in the city of New Orleans (normal population number) – holy crap.
Ok.
He doesn’t know who is charge of the National Guard.
he doesn’t know the population of New Orleans.
He doesn’t know how his FEMA team got out of the Superdome but he knows they did ’cause he saw them in Baton Rouge.
And we should not string him up by one foot why?
I’m glad the media is at least being snarky in their headlines, considering Brown blamed the media for calling his office asking for statements about his totally bogus resume as a reason he was so ineffective.
But then again, later he said he knew what he was doing and he is good at it….
He couldn’t buy a clue if it was helicoptered in by General Honore.
C-SPAN usually has reruns during the evening. Not sure how much video as opposed to audio they’ll have though since the cameras have switched over to the house floor a few times today.
You don’t have RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to catch the radio stream?
with this stream…dunno why.
You can try opening WMP and typing the url of the location in…
NO Police Chief Compass is retiring
Mr R of Indiana is asking some good questions of the role of FEMA in many aspects and Brown is getting caught with his pants down re what he doesn’t know.
Brown is being asked about who’s responsible for the protection of weapons caches…
has anybody mentioned Blackwater yet?
is being asked about a list of requests submitted to him by Mayor Nagin…Brown says he passed the list on to Phil Parr of FEMA…Brown doesn’t remember what was on the list…asked if Nagin told him Tuesday morning about people in the Convention Center, Brown said no…
asked when Blanco activated the Nat Guard, Brown says he doesn’t know…
Brown is again blaming the sitaution on anything but himself – this was truly catstrophic!…well no shit and it was your job to deal with it..
Now he’s blaming the hospitals for not being prepared enough…
Gene Taylor interrupts to give Brown a reality check and tell’s him he did a very very poor job of responding…
asking about Brown’s comment that he should have called the military in earlier…Brown says the miliatry could have been asked to take over the distribution of MREs etc…sec of def has to agree and did, but Brown says he should have told dod to do it Sat or Sun…
Brown doesn’t know what happened to the debit card plan because he left in the middle of it…
he just mad an interesting comment re the debit card plan – he said it would allow FEMA to keep track of people’s expenditures…(isn’t that incredibly invasive?)
I hope that comment caught someone’s attention because the fact that Brown said he likes the debit card plan because they can then keep track of how people spend the money is extremely disturbing to me. If those cards replace cheques and people aren’t aware that their spending is being tracked by the gov’t…who has that authority and when did they get it?
oh, you’re damn straight they are being tracked. The dad of the family i helped into their apartment last week said they were told that the debit card would be “turned off” if they bought cigarettes or acohol with them — he got himself a carton of cigs and whatdya know? The next time he tried to use it, it came back “no authorization” — so, I understand why they wouldn’t want the $$ being used that way, but the implications of this are fucking scary….in addition to the question of what happens then to the money he no longer has access to? The RC can document that they gave him the card, will they also document that they shut it off?
When FEMA hands out cheques, do they ask for records of how the money’s spent?
…that Gene Taylor is playing along, thus lending an air of legitimacy to this fake Republican investigation! And here after Armando’s enthusiastic endorsement, I thought Gene Taylor would actually work with the Democratic Party. Could the “big tent” calculus actually be wrong? Oh my!
Apparently he’s a Democrat in name only. And his participation just undercuts the momentum for what we really need, which is an independent investigation.
But then, we know now that blue dog Dems vote against about as much as for Democrat measures. So no longer can we pretend to be surprised.
I agree that there has to be an independent investigation – no doubt about that – but if Taylor and Jefferson hadn’t been there today, Brown would have had too easy of a ride (excluding Shays’ questions).
I don’t know about the whole political dog analysis part of this, but I can’t blame them for speaking up on behalf of their people.
In a way, they belong there with the Republicans — especially pro-war, pro-bankruptcy bill, anti-choice Taylor.
But once again, we are shown why electing any Democrat doesn’t mean advancing the party’s interests. These guys have undercut the Dem position that there needs to be an independent investigation.
Do we really need people in the “big tent” who are going to keep dragging it, stakes and all, over to the Republican picnic?
I agree with you. You need to elect people who reflect your beliefs – not just anyone with a D behind their name.
There absolutely has to be an independent investigation. Today was the first time I’ve ever seen Gene Taylor (canuck, here), so my reaction was to the direct effect of the Ds that did appear at the committee since they asked the hard questions and let Brown hang himself. Having said that though, perhaps Shays could have carried that role by himself since he was equally as aggressive.
Looking back now, since Shays did his duty (and other Rs also exposed Brown’s incompetency), I’d have to say that the Dems did the right thing by staying away en masse. Brown has handed them one hell of a mess to sort out and I don’t trust the Rs to do it properly.
Does that make sense?
(I’m tired – it’s been a long and frustrating day listening to that bastard Brown).
Thornberry is bringing up the “budget issue” now…what is he talking about?
I kind of went off into la la land when he started talking…that happens to me often when Republicans are on the air.
contrdiction of what he said before…
We have to reestablish relationships so we know what to do, when the big ones hit….
Didn’t he say just earlier that they knew what to do and how to do it?
Now it’s all about show me the money??
I need to look this up later — because now they’re saying that all the other states had these and LA didn’t….what the fuck is it about demonizing the state of LA?
MB:
Wednesday I ordered the buses, but I need to look it up, I have to be careful here.
For fuck’s sake.
It’s been how many weeks now? Why doesn’t Brown have a detailed timeline of what happened when in front of him today?
yes – I know the answer to that…
Shays and Brownie:
No, Brownie, how about just doing the job in a semi-competent fashion and taking repsonsibility for your mistakes, when they occur.
He and Jack Cafferty were commenting on viewer e-mails and said that they get a lot of e-mails from Canada … that they have a huge following in Canada … and Wolf said he loves Canadians.
lol – what a butt kisser he is. Yes, I’ve sent him my share of e-mails over the years. 🙂 I’ve recently started harassing – I mean “e-mailing” – Cafferty too.
Jack just read an e-mail from Lois in Vancouver. She told Wolf she loves him.
The butt kissing goes both ways, eh?
Or are they evacuating?
🙂
(5 minute break)
Obviously, Brown wasn’t in charge of those efforts because they went off without a hitch.
Wants to know why Bill Carlyle (FEMA) in MS is retiring.
Pickering says Carlyle is being forced to report to Baton Rouge (bureacracy) and is frustrated.
How could any self-respecting person — any sane person — who’s been excoriated in the press and is almost universally condemned by the public — be willing to be hired as a consultant and undergo such a deluge of condemnation?
If it were I, I’d hide in the biggest hole I could find, and avoid everyone.
Another QUESTION: Who exactly decided to hire him as a consultant?
He’s obviously a member of the No Conscience Club – plus he’s getting paid big bucks. By the way, he thinks it’s the press’s fault (along with everybody and their dog) that he screwed up. He’s done a heckuva job, after all.
Damn Susan,
he was hired yesterday so he would be a good boy today.
And he just keeps toeing the line…
comments about letting the charity flow – not turning away donations… Brown says yes, but, when you need donations of batteries and get too much underwear – that’s unhelpful..(basically)
why is it that they cannot talk about what is going on RIGHT THIS FUCKING MINUTE in TX and LA — why not? Why not?
this hearing is about Katrina…the Rita f*ck ups will be dealt with sometime next year – maybe.
Brown needs to be fired from his job as a consultant right now. His testimony today shows how completely oblivious he is to his own failures. If they just need someone to go through documents – which he gave as his current job description – I’m sure they could hire 5 more qualified people for the same total amount of money who would do that job much more efficiently than he ever could. He needs to go. He has done everything possible to obfuscate this hearing today. Send the bastard home.
Catnip, dahlink…you have to remember he lives in the same bubble as our boy George…lol!
…asking why FEMA was on the ground on Tuesday handing out pamphlets with phone numbers and web site urls to people with no phones and computers.
doh!
move very rapidly!!
O MY FUCKING GOD!
that was in the response to Taylor’s question about passing out flyers saying “call FEMA and/or go online” in a place where there are no phones and electricity.
Yeah, floating downstream.
sending HUMAN BEINGS down at a picnic table??
Oh, I love Taylor!!
he is on the brink, he is whiny, he is indignant, just push him over the edge guys — go on!!
Brown has lectured every single Rep that’s challenged him with tough questions.
Who’s that guy behind Brown? He looks like he could be George Tenet’s brother.
That is someone who can verify that he did work for some place or other,(responding to the times article about his previous employment, he actually swore he did all the things on his resume) he pointed him out early in the hearings.
IOW, he lied too? 🙂
comunications industry?? Just asking, ’cause he keeps on harping on communications technology.
geez…I sure need a shower after all of that crap flying around…
Thanks for your coverage catnip!
I keep thinking as bad as Brownie is/was, GWB should be sitting in the hot seat taking hard questions right now.
Bushy’s too busy doing photo ops.
brinniane was today’s live blogging ringleader and a fine job was done by all. 🙂
I just watched the end of Brown’s performance.
I remember slimy and devious, brown-nosing, back-stabbing creeps like him from basck when I was in high school. they’d cheaqt on tests, make up stuff about others who didn’t like them, and suck up to the teachers at every opportunity. And, they were universally stupid as well.
Another topic. Did any congressperson asked Brown about the DHS/Fema “National Response Plan”, and why FEMA didn’t follow it’s directives and guidelines?
Jefferson adn Taylor both did, but to my mind, they read the wrong parts of the thing into the record — not that it necessarily needs to be there since it is a publically accessible gov. document, but still, they didn’t hammer him enough with it, so all in all, the whole thing was a fucking wash, wich is why I am on my thrid beer atm.
More opportunities squandered by dems. they wouldn’t know an opposition party if it bit them in the ass.
It would have been great if they’d read this section from page 43 of the NRP.
FEMA bears no responsibility for evacuating, unless and until the State requests federal control of any disaster [JTF]. According to Louisiana’s own plan, and NOLA’s, mandatory evacuation should have been called on Saturday morning [Nagin’s “50-hour” statement]. It was a State call to task the Guard with that evacuation. Nagin did not require mandatory evac until Sunday morning, which by his own admission was far too late.
(Compounding the problems after landfall was the failure of the entire comm system. ePM Article I wrote on that failure).
To be accurate, it is important to include the first part of the NRP:
It is also helpful to read the enabling statute @ 42 USC 68, et. seq.. Congress at work.
Blame for the disaster that was Katrina will be spread wide and thin, irrespective of the public’s demand for a scapegoat. Nice to have a national rant, but I’ll wait until all the evidence is in before making judgements. Better to be a jury than a lynch mob.
[Note for the rabid: I have read the entire NRP; Louisiana’s State Plan; and the enabling statute. I detest many things about this administration; don’t think Brown did his job; and want justice for those who are still suffering in the aftermath.]
I agree with all you say.
For the sake of clarity, I am not seeking to exonerate local govt. officials for their failures or overenthusiastically seeking to pin all the blame for this mess on the Bush regime. As you say, there’s plenty offault to be found at all levels of government here, and if we ever get to the truth of things publicly, singling out any one governmental department for blame will be seen as petty and politically motivated.
Having said that, mypurpose in referring to the particular section of the NRP I did was to counter the attempts by both Brown and other DHS/FEMA apologists to claim the State and local government’s failures to request, (or give permission for), specific kinds of help from DHS/FEMA are responsible for the delays in FEMA doing it’s job regarding pre-positioning assets in advance of the storm and then getting into the disaster area immediately after the storm blew through.
The fact that FEMA is not necessarily supposed to be the lead agency in charge of evacuations is in large part functionally irrelevant to the fact of FEMA’s failures on the ground. Regardless of how many people may or may not have been evacuated, the fact that food, water, and other life sustaining supplies were not more quickly supplied to the region; the fact that FEMA was stopping scores of independent citizens’ groups from providing supplies and aiding in the rescue efforts; these are the areas where FEMA’s failures were most deadly, and they have nothing to do with who has the authority for ordering evacuation.
To reiterate from pg 43 of the NRP;
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t find anything in the NRP to contradict the idea that once the governor of a state formally requests Federal help in the face of a disaster, and once the president declares the state of emergency, that DHS/FEMA is empowered from that moment forward to take the lead deploying all of it’s considerable resources into the affected region, and that, for the sake of expediency, circumventing much of the bureaucratic obstructions is permitted.
they have nothing to do with who has the authority for ordering evacuation.
They have everything to do with who has police authority: State and Locals. That authority was maintained until the JTF assumed overall responsibility 5 days post-landfall.
As to before landfall: a reminder from the Times-Picayune, aka NOLA [Sat, 28 Aug]:
In contravention of all the planning and exercises, and with ample Guard troops pre-staged, they could not manage to evacuate their people. Why? Gosh, the City might get sued by the Hotel industry. Brilliant. F*cking brilliant.
DHS/FEMA is empowered from that moment forward to take the lead deploying all of it’s considerable resources into the affected region, and that, for the sake of expediency, circumventing much of the bureaucratic obstructions is permitted.
Permitted, not mandated. I’m not surprised they didn’t let the flotilla in – my guess is it came down to liability. [“Looters”, toxic water, and danger of harm to the rescuers and stranded.] I don’t agree with the decision, but I understand it.
They staged according to the plans, and had begun the process O/A the 24th (HAZUS – Annotated SitReps). They were simply overwhelmed, as were all the responders in the path. And as I wrote in the article, the entire comm network went down – not just wires and towers – the entire network. That single failure was responsible for more human suffering than any other single factor.
I’m not absolving any of the local authorities of blame in this, but simply saying that whether the authority for ordering a mandatory evac rests with the Mayor or the Governor or the President or an alien from outer space has little to do with the failures of DHS/FEMA on the ground, either in terms of their purported pre-positioning of assets, or their lagging deployment of those assets in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
Additionally, while I realize the comm network went down and created huge difficulties, (I read your excellent piece on this), the idea that disaster-response personnel should not be deployed because they might be endangered is somewhat ludicrous in that danger is an inherent condition in any disaster. What’s the point of having a crisis relief program if it’s not going to be deployed unless everyone’s safety is assured. To me, this is just nonsense. (I’m not saying it’s your nonsense, but that the idea of it in and of itself is nonsense.)
I would be interested to learn if there was any single incidence where either city or state authority actually trumped FEMA’s authority to perform the job it was created to do.
FEMA’s job until taken over by the JTF was to coordinate resources – local, State and federal. “First responders” were the locals + Guard, and I don’t know of any restrictions on their movements. Local ad hoc groups were denied entry, but not disaster personnel.
What this comes down to is the people stranded inside the City unable to get out, and supplies unable to get in fast enough in enough quantity. Here’s one of the problems [1 Sep]:
I have no idea how much aid could or would have reached the interior of the City had not the media reported “widespread”, as opposed to “isolated incidents” of looting. What appeared on the tv screens of America bore little resemblance to the work of the rather substantial forces deployed for rescue.
The response to Rita is instructive because there everything was allegedly in place, it was a less powerful storm, yet they are still having problems dealing with the displaced populations.
The problems are systemic. Hindsight being 20/20, I would think the JTF should have been formed Sunday night, and declared federal operational control of the entire region.
I don’t want to seem obstinate about this, but, if Iread you right, you’re saying that FEMA has virtually no authority to actually do anything in a disaster area until it comes under the authority of a JTF. And, that somehow, an unverifiable claim of shooting by a newsmedia organization has the power to halt a significant rescue operation because such shooting might have endangered the rescuers.
I agree that the problems are systemic, but there is so much verifiable evidence of direct, incontrovertible, FEMA incompetence and planning malfeasance, that whether argues systemic flaws as causative or not, the fact remains that those at the helm of FEMA were negligent and incompetent and that their failures, independent of the broader “systemic failures”, likely cost many lives and exacerbated the suffering for many many people.
I’m not so foolish or naive as to think FEMA could have solved all problems for everyone or made things painless. All I’m saying is that FEMA mismanagement and negligence actively added to the difficulties in those early days, and that those responsible for these failures should be held accountable.
One thing I forgot above.
FEMA apparently did have the authority in those early days to prevent aid from coming into the region, so I wonder through what systemic mechanism this “blockading” authority was conferred upon them while at the same time they themselves were apparently not authorized to engage in any direct efforts themselves absent JTF approval.
All I’m saying is that FEMA mismanagement and negligence actively added to the difficulties in those early days, and that those responsible for these failures should be held accountable.
Agreed.
you’re saying that FEMA has virtually no authority to actually do anything in a disaster area until it comes under the authority of a JTF
No. I’m saying FEMA had responsibility for overall coordination of the disaster:
As for FEMA blocking access, I don’t know the answer to that, neither does anyone else right now.
that somehow, an unverifiable claim of shooting by a newsmedia organization has the power to halt a significant rescue operation because such shooting might have endangered the rescuers.
The looting and shooting were verified by both the media and first responders. My point was that the perception of scope, absent clear communications could easily have slowed the progress of the entire operation. There were police who were shot at, there were roving armed gangs. The police chief, Nagin, Blanco, and the feds ALL condemned them and ALL admitted they were hampering the rescue effort.
All I’ve been trying to point out since somewhere around the 30th of August is that no one will know with certainty exactly how this entire mess played out until after the investigation(s) are complete.
As far as I’m concerned, the “progressive blogosphere” is guilty of engaging in exactly the same type of vitriolic campaign engaged in by the right that ultimately forced the retirement of Dan Rather.
I’m with you completely where you say;
“…no one will know with certainty exactly how this entire mess played out until after the investigation(s) are complete.”
As for FEMA’s authority and it’s job description, if, as you quote, the following is true;
“The Federal Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has the responsibility for the coordination of federal emergency/disaster operations and resources in support of state and local government capabilities, and for directing and coordinating the delivery of federal disaster relief assistance programs.”
then “Res Ipso Loquitur”, (the fact that there were such profound problems of such duration is evidence that FEMA failed in the performance of their primary duty to effectively coordinate those emergency operations and resources.)
I’m not on a witch hunt with this, and I certainly agree with you that there are many in the so-called “progressive blogosphere” who are just irresponsibly apportioning categorical blame absent evidence. I don’t feel I’m doing that and I hope you don’t think I am either, since I always find your postings informative and enlightening and I respect your pespectives.
I don’t feel I’m doing that
No, you’re never one to jump – you always wait for facts – that’s one of the reasons I like your writing. I agree with your analysis, and disagree only with the degree to which FEMA was responsible. I think it’s closer to a total breakdown of all systems in New Orleans.
KO is on and about to slap Brown silly …
and Paula Zahn is doing the same on CNN …